Achilles - Ancient History Encyclopedia Achilles by Mark Cartwright published on 29 September 2012 Leader of the fearsome Myrmidons, sacker of cities , and slayer of Hektor, godlike Achilles was quite simply invincible in battle , and only the divine intervention of Apollo finally put an end to his long reign as the greatest Greek warrior of them all. The bravest, strongest, and even the best-looking hero of the all-star Greek army that went to Troy to recapture Helen , Achilles was also rather too proud and bad-tempered for his own good and his reckless rage would cost both his countrymen and the enemy dear. Early Life In Greek mythology , Achilles was born to Peleus and Thetis the Nereid. His mother, in order to make her son immortal, held him over a divine fire or in some accounts, the River Styx. However, the infant was suspended by his heel and so this part of his body remained mortal flesh and ultimately, this weakness would lead to Achilles’ downfall.

Thetis, knowing that her son was fated to a glorious but short life, sought to hide Achilles away from the world, and so the boy was raised on Skyros with the royal family of Lykomedes, even in some accounts disguised as a girl. Some accounts also credit the hero’s education to Chiron, the wise centaur who also included Hercules in his roll of pupils. The Trojan War By far the richest source of our knowledge concerning Achilles’ escapades is Homer ’s account of the Trojan War in the Iliad. Indeed, one may reasonably argue that Achilles is the star of the piece, and Homer himself describes his story as a tale of the rage of Achilles. Early on in the book, Odysseus , the wily king of Ithaca, is sent on a mission to find Achilles and persuade him to participate in the coming war between Greeks and Trojans. Odysseus was a formidable negotiator, and with Achilles’ thirst for glory, the embassy was successful and Achilles, leaving behind his son Neoptolemus, sailed for Troy.

With him went 50 fast ships, each carrying 50 men of his own private army, the Myrmidons - fearsome fighters who had been transformed from ants by Zeus himself and given to his son Aiakos, King of Aegina and father of Peleus. The Achaean siege of Troy lasted for ten years and during this time, Achilles excelled in battle and sacked no less than 23 cities in the surrounding area. Early on in the conflict, the hero also ambushed the Trojan prince Troilos as he drank at a spring and sacrificed him in honour of Apollo. This was fortuitous for the Greeks, as an oracle had decreed that if the prince were killed before he reached 20 years of age, then Troy would fall. In some accounts the murder of Troilos occurred at a sanctuary of Apollo, and this may explain the archer god’s fateful grudge against Achilles. Things, then, were looking pretty good for the Greeks at this point, but their fortunes changed dramatically for the worse when Agamemnon , King of Mycenae and leader of the Greek forces, fell out with his greatest warrior and Achilles withdrew from the conflict.

The quarrel started after Achilles had abducted two beauties in one of his raids - Breseis and Chryseis. Keeping the former for himself, he gave Chryseis to Agamemnon. However, Chyryseis’ father Chryses offered a tempting ransom for the girl’s safe return. Agamemnon refused and perhaps because the girl had been a priestess of Apollo, the god was displeased with the decision and sent a plague to wreak havoc amongst the Achaean camp. Agamemnon eventually relinquished his prize, but to console himself at his loss, promptly took Breseis from Achilles. Miffed at this sleight and claiming he was dishonoured before all of his compatriots, Achilles and his Myrmidons stormed off to their camp to sit out the rest of the war. Advertisement Achilles the man-breaker, decked out in his divine armour was mad with rage. Without their talismanic warrior, the Achaeans' fortunes waned and the Trojans took confidence from Achilles’ absence, even reaching dangerously close to the walls of the Achaean camp in their attacks and managing to start a fire amongst the Greek ships.

Agamemnon offered fabulous gifts and the return of Breseis but to no avail, and in this hour of great danger, even Achilles’ great friend Patroklos pleaded with the hero to re-enter the fray or at least allow him to lead out the Myrmidons in battle. Achilles agreed to the latter, and giving Patroklos his armour, made his friend promise only to engage in defensive action and not pursue the Trojans back to Troy. When the Trojans saw the armoured Patroklos, they thought that Achilles had re-entered proceedings and a panic ensued. Patroklos, flushed with success, ignored his leader’s advice and chased after the fleeing Trojans, even killing the Lycian Sarpedon, a son of Zeus, and reached the walls of Troy. Unfortunately for the young warrior, Apollo, protector of the Trojans, decided at that moment to intervene, and he struck the helmet and armour from his body and guided the spear of Euphorbos to strike him in the back. Patroklos was only wounded by the blow but Hektor, the Trojan prince, was at hand to deliver the final, fatal blow.

A long battle then followed over possession of the body, with the Achaeans, led by Menelaos and Ajax, finally managing to take the fallen Patroklos back to their camp. The Rage of Achilles When Achilles discovered the tragedy he was mad with rage; now he would fight and take terrible revenge for the death of his friend. He immediately asked his mother Thetis to provide new armour and she enlisted Hephaistos , the god of metallurgy, to forge for the hero the most magnificent armour ever made. Homer describes the armour in great detail; the gleaming shield depicted all manner of scenes in gold , silver, and enamel, the greaves were of shining tin, and the helmet had a crest of gold. Achilles the man-breaker, decked out in his divine armour and still livid with rage, took to the battlefield once more and routed the enemy left, right, and centre, sending a long line of Trojan heroes down to Hades . He then went after Hektor, and although Apollo tried three times to protect the prince in clouds of mist, the two finally met in single combat outside the walls of Troy.

Hektor, although a great warrior himself, was no match for Achilles, who swiftly dispatched the Trojan, and by tying him to his chariot , dragged the corpse in front of the walls of the city in full-view of his grieving family and then back to the Achaean camp, a sacrilegious act, breaking all etiquette of ancient warfare . Myrmidons (Greek myth) First Appearance: Fantastic Four III#21 (September, 1999) Powers/Abilities: The Myrmidons are fierce warriors. They wear metal body armor and carry swords, either or both of which may be magically enhanced. They may also possess some degree of superhuman physical power. Like the ants to which they have been likened, they will swarm over their enemies in an effort to overwhelm them. History: (Graeco-Roman myth)- The Myrmidons were an ancient tribe of people who once existed in ancient Greece and who take their name from the ancient Thessalian king Myrmidon. Son of Zeus and the mortal princess Eurymedusa, he succeeded Aeolus as king of Phthia.

He called upon his father to send him a band of great warriors and Zeus transformed several ants into soldiers to serve him. (This myth is also attributed to Peleus with some variation. Considering this occurs one generation or so after the date of the Greek Flood, this may be an invention to explain why men still existed in Greece after the flood. At this time, Cadmus also created men from the soil and King Erichthonius (Cecrops) sprang from the soil to resume his monarchy.) Myrmidon was succeeded by his son Actor who was succeeded by his son Eurytion. Several Myrmidons emigrated with Aeacus, another son of Zeus, to Aegina although later myth says they were created from ants already there. Aeacus's son, Peleus, came to Eurytion to be pardoned by the accidental murder of his half-brother Phocis. Eurytion named him as his successor, but after Eurytion was killed in a hunting accident, Peleus went into exile for two years before assuming rule of the Myrmidons. Several of the myrmidons followed Peleus's son, Achilles, into the Trojan War where they proved their worth in battle.

Many of them lost their lives. (Fantastic Four III#21) - Hippolyta (allied with Pluto, the Olympian god of the dead) used the Myrmidons against Bounty and Valeria Von Doom, the protectors of young Franklin Richards who had come to rescue Caledonia. (Ares#2) - The Myrmidons were assigned by Achilles to guard Alex Aaron, the son of Ares, while Achilles and two of the Myrmidons journeyed to Earth to bring Ares into the battle. While Achilles was away, the Japanese demon Mikaboshi attacked the Myrmidons and killed all but one of the Myrmidons. With only three of the Myrmidons remaining, Achilles continued to lead his men into battle. Achilles - Ancient History - HISTORY.com Google Achilles: Early Life Like most mythological heroes, Achilles had a complicated family tree. His father was Peleus, the mortal king of the Myrmidons–a people who, according to legend, were extraordinarily fearless and skilled soldiers. His mother was Thetis, a Nereid. Did You Know?

Today, we use the phrase “Achilles heel” to describe a powerful person’s fatal weakness. According to myths and stories composed long after the Iliad, Thetis was extraordinarily concerned about her baby son’s mortality. She did everything she could to make him immortal: She burned him over a fire every night, then dressed his wounds with ambrosial ointment; and she dunked him into the River Styx, whose waters were said to confer the invulnerability of the gods. However, she gripped him tightly by the foot as she dipped him into the river–so tightly that the water never touched his heel. As a result, Achilles was invulnerable everywhere but there. When he was 9 years old, a seer predicted that Achilles would die heroically in battle against the Trojans. When she heard about this, Thetis disguised him as a girl and sent him to live on the Aegean island of Skyros. To be a great warrior was Achilles’ fate, however, and he soon left Skyros and joined the Greek army.

In a last-ditch effort to save her son’s life, Thetis asked the divine blacksmith Hephaestus to make a sword and shield that would keep him safe. The armor that Hephaestus produced for Achilles did not make him immortal, but it was distinctive enough to be recognized by friend and foe alike. When Homer wrote the Iliad in about 720 BCE, however, readers and listeners would not have known any of this. They only knew that Achilles was a great hero, that he had superhuman strength and courage and that he was supremely handsome. Homer painted a more nuanced picture: In addition to these qualities, his Achilles was vengeful and quick to anger and could be petulant when he did not get his way. He was also deeply loyal and would sacrifice anything for his friends and family. Achilles: The Trojan War According to legend, the Trojan War began when the god-king Zeus decided to reduce Earth’s mortal population by arranging a war between the Greeks (Homer calls them the Achaeans) and the Trojans. He did this by meddling in their political and emotional affairs.

At Achilles’ parents’ wedding banquet, Zeus invited the prince of Troy, a young man named Paris, to judge a beauty contest between the goddesses Hera, Athena and Aphrodite. Each of the goddesses offered Paris a bribe in exchange for his vote. Aphrodite’s was the most alluring: She promised to give the young prince the most beautiful wife in the world. Unfortunately, the wife in question–Helen, the daughter of Zeus–was already married to someone else: Menelaus, the king of Sparta . At Aphrodite’s urging, Paris went to Sparta, won Helen’s heart and took her (along with all of Menelaus’ money) back to Troy. Menelaus vowed revenge. He assembled an army of Greece’s greatest warriors, including Achilles and his Myrmidons, and set off to conquer Troy and get his wife back. In Homer’s telling, this war lasted for 10 bloody years. Achilles: The Illiad When the Iliad begins, the Trojan War has been going on for nine years. Achilles, the poem’s protagonist, has led one battle after another.

He has met with great success–in fact, he is undefeated in battle–but the war itself has reached a stalemate. Homer’s story focuses on a different conflict, however: the internecine quarrel between his hero and Agamemnon, the leader of the Achaean armies and Menelaus’ brother. In a battle that took place before the poem begins, Agamemnon had taken as a concubine a young Trojan woman named Chryseis. Chryseis’ father, a priest of the god Apollo, tried to buy his daughter’s freedom, but Agamemnon mocked his entreaties and refused to release the girl. Enraged, Apollo punished the Greek armies by sending a plague to kill the soldiers one by one. As his ranks thinned, Agamemnon finally agreed to allow Chryseis to return to her father. However, he demanded a replacement concubine in exchange: Achilles’ wife, the Trojan princess Breseis. Achilles did as his commander asked and relinquished his bride. Then, he announced that he would no longer fight on Agamemnon’s behalf.

He gathered his belongings, including the armor Hephaestus had made, and refused to come out of his tent. With the Greeks’ greatest warrior off the battlefield, the tide began to turn in favor of the Trojans. The Greeks lost one battle after another. Eventually, Achilles’ best friend, the soldier Patroclus, was able to wrangle a compromise: Achilles would not fight, but he would let Patroclus use his powerful armor as a disguise. That way, the Trojans would think that Achilles had returned to battle and would retreat in fear. The plan was working until Apollo, still seething about Agamemnon’s treatment of Chryseis and her father, intervened on the Trojans’ behalf. He helped the Trojan prince Hector to find and kill Patroclus. Furious, Achilles vowed to take revenge. He chased Hector back to Troy, slaughtering Trojans all the way. When they got to the city walls, Hector tried to reason with his pursuer, but Achilles was not interested. He stabbed Hector in the throat, killing him. Hector had begged for an honorable burial in Troy, but Achilles was determined to humiliate his enemy even in death.

He dragged Hector’s body behind his chariot all the way back to the Achaean camp and tossed it on the garbage heap. However, in the poem’s last section Achilles finally relents: He returns Hector’s body to his father for a proper burial. Achilles: The Fate of Achilles In his Iliad, Homer does not explain what happened to Achilles. According to later legends (and bits and pieces of Homer’s own Odyssey), the warrior returned to Troy after Hector’s funeral to exact further revenge for Patroclus’ death. However, the still-vengeful Apollo told Hector’s brother Paris that Achilles was coming. Paris, who was not a brave warrior, ambushed Achilles as he entered Troy. He shot his unsuspecting enemy with an arrow, which Apollo guided to the one place he knew Achilles was vulnerable: his heel, where his mother’s hand had kept the waters of the Styx from touching his skin. Achilles died on the spot, still undefeated in battle. Tags What Are the Myrmidons? By N.S. Gill Definition: The Myrmidons are familiar from the story of the Trojan War because they were the troops Achilles led to Troy.

They were called Myrmidons because it is said that they were originally ants and myrmidons comes from a Greek word for ant (μύρμηξ , ηκος). The grandfather of Achilles was Aiacos whose son Phocus wound up on an island all alone. In response to his grief, Zeus, his grandfather, gave him company by turning the area ants into men and women. These Myrmidons were the first to build ships with sails (according to fragment 205 of Hesiod). Pronunciation: ˈmər-mə-dən Ancient Greece Reloaded ANCIENT GREECE RELOADED ENTER THE WORLD OF MYTHS AND LEGENDS Achilles The warrior Achilles is one of the great heroes of Greek mythology. According to legend, Achilles was extraordinarily strong, courageous and loyal, but he had one vulnerability - his "Achilles heel". Homer's epic poem The Iliad tells the story of his adventures during the last year of the Trojan War. ACHILLES: EARLY LIFE Like most mythological heroes, Achilles had a complicated family tree.

His father was Peleus, the mortal king of the Myrmidons - a people who, according to legend, were extraordinarily fearless and skilled soldiers. His mother was Thetis, a Nereid. According to myths and stories composed long after the Iliad, Thetis was extraordinarily concerned about her baby son's mortality. She did everything she could to make him immortal: She burned him over a fire every night, then dressed his wounds with ambrosial ointment; and she dunked him into the River Styx, whose waters were said to confer the invulnerability of the gods. However, she gripped him tightly by the foot as she dipped him into the river - so tightly that the water never touched his heel. As a result, Achilles was invulnerable everywhere but there. When he was 9 years old, a seer predicted that Achilles would die heroically in battle against the Trojans. When she heard about this, Thetis disguised him as a girl and sent him to live on the Aegean island of Skyros. To be a great warrior was Achilles' fate, however, and he soon left Skyros and joined the Greek army.

In a last-ditch effort to save her son's life, Thetis asked the divine blacksmith Hephaestus to make a sword and shield that would keep him safe. The armor that Hephaestus produced for Achilles did not make him immortal, but it was distinctive enough to be recognized by friend and foe alike. When Homer wrote the Iliad in about 720 BCE, however, readers and listeners would not have known any of this. They only knew that Achilles was a great hero, that he had superhuman strength and courage and that he was supremely handsome. Homer painted a more nuanced picture: In addition to these qualities, his Achilles was vengeful and quick to anger and could be petulant when he did not get his way. He was also deeply loyal and would sacrifice anything for his friends and family. ACHILLES: THE TROJAN WAR According to legend, the Trojan War began when the god-king Zeus decided to reduce Earth's mortal population by arranging a war between the Greeks (Homer calls them the Achaeans) and the Trojans. He did this by meddling in their political and emotional affairs.

At Achilles' parents' wedding banquet, Zeus invited the prince of Troy, a young man named Paris, to judge a beauty contest between the goddesses Hera, Athena and Aphrodite. Each of the goddesses offered Paris a bribe in exchange for his vote. Aphrodite's was the most alluring: She promised to give the young prince the most beautiful wife in the world. Unfortunately, the wife in question-Helen, the daughter of Zeus-was already married to someone else: Menelaus, the king of Sparta. At Aphrodite's urging, Paris went to Sparta, won Helen's heart and took her (along with all of Menelaus' money) back to Troy. Menelaus vowed revenge. He assembled an army of Greece's greatest warriors, including Achilles and his Myrmidons, and set off to conquer Troy and get his wife back. In Homer's telling, this war lasted for 10 bloody years. ACHILLES: THE ILLIAD When the Iliad begins, the Trojan War has been going on for nine years. Achilles, the poem's protagonist, has led one battle after another.

He has met with great success-in fact, he is undefeated in battle-but the war itself has reached a stalemate. Homer's story focuses on a different conflict, however: the internecine quarrel between his hero and Agamemnon, the leader of the Achaean armies and Menelaus' brother. In a battle that took place before the poem begins, Agamemnon had taken as a concubine a young Trojan woman named Chryseis. Chryseis' father, a priest of the god Apollo, tried to buy his daughter's freedom, but Agamemnon mocked his entreaties and refused to release the girl. Enraged, Apollo punished the Greek armies by sending a plague to kill the soldiers one by one. As his ranks thinned, Agamemnon finally agreed to allow Chryseis to return to her father. However, he demanded a replacement concubine in exchange: Achilles' wife, the Trojan princess Breseis. Achilles did as his commander asked and relinquished his bride. Then, he announced that he would no longer fight on Agamemnon's behalf.

He gathered his belongings, including the armor Hephaestus had made, and refused to come out of his tent. With the Greeks' greatest warrior off the battlefield, the tide began to turn in favor of the Trojans. The Greeks lost one battle after another. Eventually, Achilles' best friend, the soldier Patroclus, was able to wrangle a compromise: Achilles would not fight, but he would let Patroclus use his powerful armor as a disguise. That way, the Trojans would think that Achilles had returned to battle and would retreat in fear. The plan was working until Apollo, still seething about Agamemnon's treatment of Chryseis and her father, intervened on the Trojans' behalf. He helped the Trojan prince Hector to find and kill Patroclus. Furious, Achilles vowed to take revenge. He chased Hector back to Troy, slaughtering Trojans all the way. When they got to the city walls, Hector tried to reason with his pursuer, but Achilles was not interested. He stabbed Hector in the throat, killing him. Hector had begged for an honorable burial in Troy, but Achilles was determined to humiliate his enemy even in death.

He dragged Hector's body behind his chariot all the way back to the Achaean camp and tossed it on the garbage heap. However, in the poem's last section Achilles finally relents: He returns Hector's body to his father for a proper burial. ACHILLES: THE FATE OF ACHILLES In his Iliad, Homer does not explain what happened to Achilles. According to later legends (and bits and pieces of Homer's own Odyssey), the warrior returned to Troy after Hector's funeral to exact further revenge for Patroclus' death. However, the still-vengeful Apollo told Hector's brother Paris that Achilles was coming. Paris, who was not a brave warrior, ambushed Achilles as he entered Troy. He shot his unsuspecting enemy with an arrow, which Apollo guided to the one place he knew Achilles was vulnerable: his heel, where his mother's hand had kept the waters of the Styx from touching his skin. Achilles died on the spot, still undefeated in battle. The hero Ajax managed to recover the body and took it back to the Achaean camp where funeral games were held in honour of the fallen warrior.

The magnificent armour, after a squabble with Ajax, was given to Odysseus, whose ruse of the wooden horse would finally bring an end to the siege and victory for the Greeks. Sources Greek Mythology: Achilles Greek Mythology History >> Ancient Greece >> Greek Mythology What is Achilles known for? Achilles was one of the greatest warriors and heroes in Greek Mythology. He was a major character in the Iliad by Homer where he fought in the Trojan War against the city of Troy. Birth of Achilles Achilles' father was Peleus, king of the Myrmidons, and his mother was Thetis, a sea nymph. After Achilles was born, his mother wanted to protect him from harm. She held him by the heel and dipped him into the river Styx. In Greek Mythology, the river Styx was located in the Underworld and had special powers. Achilles became invulnerable everywhere but at his heel where his mother held him. Because Achilles was a half-god, he was very strong and soon became a great warrior. However, he was also half human and wasn't immortal like his mother. He would get old and die someday and he could also be killed.

The Trojan War Begins When Helen, the wife of the Greek King Menelaus, was taken by the Trojan Prince Paris, the Greeks went to war to get her back. Achilles joined the battle and brought along a group of powerful soldiers called the Myrmidons. Achilles Fights Troy During the Trojan War, Achilles was unstoppable. He killed many of Troy's greatest warriors. However, the battle raged on for years. Many of the Greek gods were involved, some helping the Greeks and others helping the Trojans. Achilles Refuses to Fight At one point during the war, Achilles captured a beautiful princess named Briseis and fell in love with her. However, the leader of the Greek army, Agamemnon, became angry with Achilles and took Briseis from him. Achilles became depressed and refused to fight. Patroclus Dies With Achilles not fighting, the Greeks began to lose the battle. The greatest warrior of Troy was Hector and no one could stop him. Achilles' best friend was a soldier named Patroclus. Patroclus convinced Achilles to lend him his armor. Patroclus entered the battle dressed as Achilles.

Thinking that Achilles was back, the Greek army was inspired and began to fight harder. Just when things were improving for the Greeks, Patroclus met up with Hector. The two warriors engaged in battle. With the help of the god Apollo, Hector killed Patroclus and took Achilles' armor. Achilles then rejoined the battle in order to avenge his friend's death. He met Hector on the battlefield and, after a long fight, defeated him. Death Achilles continued to battle the Trojans and it seemed like he could not be killed. However, the Greek god Apollo knew his weakness. When Paris of Troy shot an arrow at Achilles, Apollo guided it so that it struck Achilles on the heel. Achilles eventually died from the wound. The Achilles' Heel Today, the term "Achilles' heel" is used to describe a point of weakness that could lead to ones' downfall. Interesting Facts About Achilles One story tells how Thetis disguised Achilles as a girl in the court of king of Skyros in order to keep him from war. Another Greek hero, Odysseus traveled to Skyros and tricked Achilles into giving himself away. The Achilles tendon that connects the heel to the calf is named after the hero Achilles.

The Greek god Apollo was angry with Achilles because Achilles killed Apollo's son. He fought and killed Penthesilea, the Queen of the Amazons. After Achilles' death, the heroes Odysseus and Ajax competed for Achilles' armor. Odysseus won and gave the armor to Achilles' son. Take a ten question quiz about this page. For more about Ancient Greece: Overview Aegina island history. From Greek Landscapes: The independent traveler's travel guide to Greece Statue of Laomedon from the temple of Aphaia east pediment. The statue is on display at the Glyptothek in Munich, Germany. The island of Aegina is located in the middle of an area that hosted some of the most productive cultural centers of antiquity, and as such it flourished from the Neolithic to the Hellenistic eras of Greek civilization. Archaeological evidence puts the islands earliest habitation around the 4th millennium BCE. According to the Greek mythology the island was inhabited when Zeus had a romantic interlude with the Nymph Aegina there and produced a son, Aecaus. Zeus, at the request of Aecaus populated the island so Aecaus would have subjects in his kingdom.

“The Myrmidons These were men created from ants on the island of Aegina, in the reign of Aeacus, Achille’s grandfather, and they were Achilles’ followers in the Trojan War. Not only were they thrifty and industrious, as one would suppose from their origin, but they were also brave. They were changed into men from ants because of one of Hera’s attacks of jealousy. She was angry because Zeus loved Aegina, the maiden for whom the island was named, and whose son, Aeacus, became its king. Hera sent a fearful pertinence which destroyed the people by thousands. It seemed that no one would be left alive. Aeacus climbed to the lofty temple of Zeus and prayed to him, reminding him that he was his son and the son of a woman the god had loved. As he spoke he saw a troop of busy ants. “Oh Father,” he cried, “make these creatures a people for me, as numerous as they, and fill my empty city.” A peal of thunder seemed to answer him and that night he dreamed that he saw the ants being transformed into human shape.

[…] So Aegina was repopulated from an ant hill and its people were called Myrmidons after the ant (myrmex) from which they had sprang.” (Hamilton, Edith, Mythology, Warner Books, New York, 1969) The island had considerable power in the Bronze Age and was mentioned by Homer as one of the contributors of troops in the Trojan War in his long catalogue. “Then men of Argos and Tiryns with her tremendous walls and Hermione, and Asine commanding the deep wide gulf, Troezen, Eionae and Epidaurus green with vines and Achaea’s warrior sons who held Aegina and Mases—Diomedes lord of the war cry led their crack contingents flanked by Sthenelus, far-famed Capaneus’ favorite son.” (Homer, The Iliad, Translated by Robert Fagles, Penguin Classics, New York, 1990) The island was abandoned between the 12th and 10th centuries BCE but was colonized again around 950 BCE, probably by settlers from Epidaurus and by the end of the 6th c.

BCE Aegina was a major commercial and cultural center. Strabo cited the ancient historian Ephorus as stating that Aegina was the fist Greek polis to mint coins. The Aeginetan coins were minted of silver, and are known as “ turtles ” * because their relief design resembled a turtle. These coins have been found in many places around the Mediterranean, a testament to Aegina’s formidable commercial prowess. The beautiful Late Archaic temple of Aphaia is testament to Aegina’s contribution to the Arts. The temple, and the sculptures that adorned it is a prime example of the transition from the Archaic to the Classical ideals. Aegina also produced many local artists, most famous of which are Anaxagoras, Callon, and Onatas. In the fifth century BCE Aegina took part in the Persian wars, and as a major naval power she contributed forces to the Greek defense of Hellas. In the battle of Salamis the Aeginetans contributed a large contingent of triremes and fought next to the Athenians with valor. “The most distinguished service at Salamis is admitted to nave been that of the Aegina; and next after Aegina was Athens.

The greatest individual distinction was won by Polycritus of Aegina [...]” (Herodotus, The Histories, translated by Aubrey de Selincourt, Penguin Classics, London, 1954) Later in the fifth century however, during the Peloponnesian war Aegina suffered the wrath of powerful Athens that expunged the island’s population for allying with the Peloponnesian League. “During the summer [431 BCE] the Athenians also expelled the Aeginetans with their wives and children from Aegina, on the ground of their having been the chief agents in bringing the war upon them. Besides, Aegina lies so near the Peloponnesus that it seemed safer to send colonists of their own to hold it, and shortly afterwards the settlers were sent out. The banished Aeginetans found asylum in Thyrea which was given to them by Sparta, not only on account of her quarrel with Athens, but also because the Aeginetans had laid her under obligations at the time of the earthquake an the revolt of the Helots.

The territory of Thyrea is on the frontier of Argolis and Laconia, reaching down to the sea. Those of the Aeginetans who did not settle here were scattered over the rest of Hellas. (Thucydides: Strassler B. Robert, The Landmark Thucydides, Touchstone, New York, 1996) The exiles were later in 404 BCE to return to Aegina, but the island’s power never reached its previous glory henceforth. In the centuries that followed, the fate of Aegina was parallel to the events and invaders that affected mainland Greece. Romans, Franks, Venetians, Catalans, and Turks all occupied the island for varying lengths of time. During the Byzantine era the island flourished as evident by the church construction. The most well known personality of the era was the medical scholar and physician Paul of Aegina who formed wrote many respected treatises on surgery and medicine. At the same time Aegina also suffered from repeated pirate raids. In the 9th c. CE the devastating raids of Saracens forced the Aeginetes to move their capital further inland in Paleohora.

In 1537 however the terrible pirate Barbarossa raided the new capital, razed it, and enslaved the inhabitants. The town was repopulated by Albanians until it was finally abandoned in 1826 after the Greek war of independence. In 1654, Aegina island was captured by the Venetians before it was ceded to the Turks with the Treaty of Passarowitz in 1718. After the war of independence Aegina served briefly as the capital of Greece when the first governor of modern Greece was sworn into office in April 1827. Aegina town served as the capital of Greece from January 1828 until December 1829 and the neoclassical buildings at Aegina harbor are testaments to this era. Myrmidones Myrmidones King Aeacus and the Myrmidons , Frans Francken the younger The Myrmidons (or Myrmidones, Μυρμιδόνες , the name literally means "ant-people") were an ancient nation of Greek mythology . The story of their origins was first mentioned by the poet Ovid.

Initially, the Myrmidons were simple worker ants on the island of Aegina . Hera , queen of the gods, sent a plague to kill all the human inhabitants of Aegina because the island was named for one of the lovers of Zeus . King Aeacus , a son of Zeus and the intended target of Hera along with his mother, prayed to his father for a means to repopulate the island. As the ants of the island were unaffected by the sickness, Zeus responded by transforming them into a race of people, the Myrmidons. They were fierce and hardy as ants, and intensely loyal to their leader. After a time, Aeacus exiled his two sons, Peleus and Telamon , for murdering their half-brother, Phocis. Peleus went to Phthia and a group of Myrmidons followed him to Thessaly . Peleus's son, Achilles , brought them to Troy to fight in the Trojan War . Another tradition states that the Myrmidons had no such remarkable beginnings, but were merely the descendants of Myrmidon, a Thessalian nobleman, who married Peisidice, the daughter of Aeolus, king of Thessaly.

Myrmidon was the father of Actor and Antiphus. As king of Phthia, Actor (or his son) invited Peleus to stay in Thessaly. Myrmidones in popular culture In Grant Morrison's comic book The Invisibles, the humans who serve the Archons and have given themselves up for bodily modification are known as Myrmidons. In Blizzard Entertainment's WarCraft real-time strategy computer game series, the Myrmidon is a powerful amphibious unit of the Naga race, which appears for the first time in Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne. Myrmidons are also a unit of strong undead warriors in the Myth: the Fallen Lords RTS game. The Myrmidon is a Terran space fighter craft in the space simulation Freespace by Volition. In the strategy video game Fire Emblem, there is a controllable unit called the myrmidon, a swordfighter from the East. In the simulation game Mechwarrior 4: Mercenaries, the Myrmidon is a small, fast attack tank that mounts powerful Particle Projection Cannons. In the fantasy role-playing game Dungeons_&_Dragons, a Myrmidon represents a relative skill level of the fighter character class (sixth level fighter).

In Magic: The Gathering, the Myr are a race of robotic creatures with a variety of useful abilities. The Myrmidons is a drinking club for Old Etonians at Merton College, Oxford.

Question: In ancient Greece whose warriors were called The Myrmidons?
Answer: Achilles